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Friday, January 30, 2015

A call to arms. We're going head first and at full speed down the slippery slope.

My blood is absolutely boiling. Some days, I have hope, today is not one of those days. Today I am sick to my stomach, getting sicker and sicker with each and every bullshit propaganda filled quote that came out of Harper's mouth.

Whether you're a conservative, a liberal, or NDP, or Green or whatever listen up because I really want you to think about what I have to say next. Reading many of the comments on news articles I see a lot of Harper supporters with blind faith this is good. It's good because Harper did it. Their trust and faith in Harper's intentions provide a blanket of security and ignorance to the slippery slope we're now on. So I'd like to ask you, Harper supporters, how would you feel about this bill if Justin Trudeau were to pass it? How well do you trust the Canadian institution as a whole that is repeatedly caught lying on both the "left" and "right" sides of the government? How would you feel about these laws being on the books if Trudeau were to take power, or the evil socialist Thomas Muclair? As conservatives often like to quote: most brutal dictatorships start under socialism and they use these types of laws to accomplish their task, don't they?

I ask these things because these laws represent a vote in confidence in not just the current state of the system, but all future states as well. Laws like these don't come off the books once they're on, how confident are you that if Harper doesn't use these laws for malicious purposes no one in the future will either?

Liberals and NDPers, how confident are you that Trudeau or Muclair would advocate these laws are repealed? The "war on terror" and using spies on American citizens, such as during Occupy, has continued apace under Obama. All of Obama's anti-war rhetoric has vanished now that he has power, overseeing the overthrow of multiple governments and plunging the Middle East into chaos as a result. Remember that the anti-terror slippery slope began in Canada under majority Liberal rule. How confident are you this system won't be used against you?

I'm mad at you for believing our media's bullshit about Assad. For years he claimed he was fighting not rebels but brutal al-Qaeda terrorists. Canadians en-masse bought into it and blamed him for "bombing his own people". Turns out he was right, now our planes and soldiers are over there bombing and shooting "at his own people". We kill with impunity and no sense of remorse, rather we kill with a sense of entitlement that only we shall do the killing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, G20 was a glimpse into the future, a test run, a training exercise and a social experiment. Our failure to bring those who orchestrated the G20 security demonstration is now escalating in to these new anti-terror laws. Then it will escalate further of course because we will fail as a people to reject these now too. Your votes are a sham, you can not vote out fascism and no marijuana law will compensate for that, it's populist bullshit.

I am hopping fucking mad at you Canadians for standing idly by and allowing this to happen. This country is in critical need of a revolution but now realize that calling for such a thing is terrorist speech. These laws are not about protecting you or the nation of Canada, it is about protecting the government, protecting the status quo, protecting the business elite from what they suspect is soon going to be a very, very, disgruntled population as the euphoria from 7 years of hocus pocus economics wears off.

There is a reason police in Canada have a "higher standard" of proof required before they can destroy and interrupt someone's life: long ago when we were a somewhat free society we knew that that right was essential to prevent a slide into tyranny. There is no government in history that felt it necessary to "lower the standard of proof" for a good reason. They're all corrupt, tyrannical. It is this very reasoning that is one of the cornerstones to what has now become a very distorted view of ourselves that we're so moral, ethical and fucking great. Not any longer, though I imagine as with everything else we'll continue to believe in our own myths of exceptionalism.

Between the mass data collection (which is so massive it doesn't actually allow you to "prevent" anything) and laws like this the stage is now set for the government to target anyone they please. The mass data collection doesn't lend itself very well to detection and prevention, it does however lend itself well to pulling up a ton of data on a target once that target is created. With the scale of data retention you could basically build a case against anyone when the standards for building that case are so flimsy. Everyone gets mad, I'm sure everyone has posted something that could be misconstrued or manipulated into whatever they want. LARP WEAPONS!!! VAST CRIMINAL TERRORIST CONSPIRACY!!! Get the picture?

This post is a call to arms, a call for all Canadians to stand together against tyranny and the continued degradation of freedom itself. Not much can be done about this short of mass protests, but I don't see that happening. My next best suggestion, something I have been and will be continuing to do personally so long as I'm not arrested on "terrorism related charges" is to include the hashtag #AttackCanada in each and every tweet. The purpose being to shine a light on the truly arbitrary nature of the words themselves and to remind people that in our society people are punished for crimes after they commit them because it is the action and not the thought that is criminal. For once I'm asking everyone to join me in doing this and to spread this post and join my "campaign" such as it is, unless you have a better idea because I'm all out.

If the thought of joining me strikes fear in you, then perhaps that is reason enough to look deep inside yourself and this country and ask should Canadians doing nothing wrong at all be afraid of their government? A people afraid of their government is not a free people, are they? I choose to show no fear.

It is not a crime to say "I'm going to rob a bank". It is a crime to rob a bank. It isn't even a crime to say I'm going to kill someone (though you may be investigated, and hospitalized for a mental disorder). Not to be confused with telling someone you're going to kill them, then it's a threat.

Pre-crime is thought-crime. Even if someone boards a plane intending to join a "terrorist organization" they may arrive and decide against it. They may meet someone on the plane who changes their worldview. Just as many of these supposed "Jihadists" converted to Islam maybe they convert back. My point is that until they actually do join the group they haven't done anything wrong and the chance exists they won't (I'm using "wrong" loosely as the "right/wrong" of everything in the bullshit 14 year 'war on terror' is highly questionable). This is the difference between "us" supposedly and "them". It's an important distinction.

Mocking Jordan's monarch is a criminal offence punishable by prosecution in a military court, but when King Abdullah of Jordan (pictured above with the French president, François Hollande) attended the demonstration on January 11th in Paris to express support for free speech in the wake of the Paris attack, some found ridicule hard to suppress. How could he march in defence of freedom of expression abroad, they asked, when he is such a serial abuser of that freedom at home? Last June he expanded the remit of an anti-terrorism law to include public criticism of the king or his allies. His spooks trawl social media for dissenting Jordanians to arrest. On December 18th the deputy leader of Jordan's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was tried before military judges for a colourful posting on his Facebook page denouncing Jordan's allies in the Emirates. Salafi preachers who decline to opine in favour of coalition attacks on Islamic State are sent back to jail. "Everyone in Jordan is assumed to be a terrorist until proven innocent," says an embittered Islamist.

Never
forget what this government is capable of...

Or the system we operate under...

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for eQube gaming systems.

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.